Grant Achatz is an American chef and restaurateur best known for being one of the top leaders of molecular gastronomy. His innovations have earned him several awards from the James Beard Foundation including "Rising Star Chef of the Year Award" for 2003, and "Best Chef in the United States" for 2008. In 2006, Achatz’s restaurant Alinea in Chicago was named the best restaurant in America by Gourmet Magazine and was awarded a three-star Michelin rating in 2010.
Grant Achatz grew up in a restaurant family, helping out in his father's kitchen since age 12. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park in 1996, Achatz was offered a position at the newly opened restaurant 'The French Laundry' after repeatedly mailing Thomas Keller his resume week after week. During his stint at the French Laundry, it was Keller who arranged for Achatz to work with Ferran Adrià (who pioneered molecular gastronomy) at El Bulli for a week. It was there where Achatz was mentored in the secrets of Adrià's molecular techniques and began approaching food with a whole new perspective.
After training under Keller for four years, Achatz left to become head chef at Trio in Chicago. Achatz began his experiment there and opened Alinea several years later, which went on to become one of America's most provocative, challenging and entertaining restaurants, bringing molecular gastronomy to new heights with innovative creations such as atomized shrimp cocktail, duck and foie gras atop a slowly deflating scent-filled pillow, and spray-dried instant pudding.
Grant has gone on to open a bar and another innovative restaurant called 'Next', which seasonally changes its style and menu completely to match a given theme, such as "Paris: 1906", "Childhood", and "Tribute to el Bulli". Even the reservation system is innovative, where tickets are pre-sold in advance similar to a theater or sporting event.

He invented radical new ways to prepare present dishes, such as the helium-filled balloon that you eat, inhale the helium then talk like a chipmunk.